Fòram na Gàidhlig

Halò a h-uile duine!

I'm delighted to say that after a few months of studying Gaelic, my interest has skyrocketed. It's an exciting time, to be learning this beautiful language, an excitement which brings me back to when I first started studying Irish intensively.

Now, I'm something of a nerd when it comes to dialects in languages, the Goidelic dialects in particular. I have a particular interest in South Uist, having been there before. I think I may wish to focus on this dialect, given that I'm likely to return there in the future. A couple of questions:

a) is there any information available on the net on the different dialects found throughout Scotland?
b) Can someone give me an idea of any peculiarities of the Uist dialect? Are there any features, vocabulary etc. that are unique to South Uist?
c) Can you recommend a book that focuses on this dialect? Something along the lines of a dialectal study. I've flicked through "A Linguistic survey of the Gaelic dialects of Scotland" before, and it appeared very detailed, though it seemed to focus on the dialect of Lewis. Is this the case? Also, where could I purchase this book? I've done a search on the internet but cannot seem to find it for sale.

Mòran taing!

Let's see

a) Not as such. Wikipedia I guess or the Atlas. The tendency is to assign a dialect to each island - the mainland is messy, I don't think there's much agreement beyond studies of specific dialects. I think the only study looking at relative distance is Seumas Grannd's The Gaelic of Islay

b) There's only one specific study Gàidhlig Uibhist a Deas by Gordon Mac Gill-Fhinnein. It's out of print but you might be lucky and find a copy. Borgstrom's The Dialects of the Outer Hebrides makes reference to Uist but isn't specifically Uist. There there's the dialect atlas and the maps in the Faclair Beag.

c) Dublin Institute for Advances Studies You're in luck, the sale is still on, €20 for all 5, I paid the old price many years ago >.<

You should also visit the online archive recordings at Tobar an Dualchais, and do a search for 'South Uist' and 'Gaelic'.

(Although the first page or two of results might well be recorded in Barra and Canna, as these John Lorne Campbell recording notes often refer to the collection 'Folksongs and Folklore of South Uist' (M. F. Shaw))


http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/

akerbeltz wrote:c) Dublin Institute for Advances Studies You're in luck, the sale is still on, €20 for all 5, I paid the old price many years ago >.<

Cha mhór nach do cheannaich mi-fhìn iad, ach €50 airson lìbhreagais....

Còig leabhraichean mòra tomadach air €20 's tu a' gearain air €50?

Tapadh leibh!

I'm just after placing an order for the five volumes as suggested above, it seems GREAT value! I cannot find much info on what each of the individual books contain, is one of them the study on the Outer Hebrides by Borgstrøm? It doesn't really matter, the sheer quantity of material will more than meet my need!

FYI, I noticed that the book Gàidhlig Uidhist a Deas is also available on the site, Akerbeltz. I'll hold off on buying it for the moment, being the oileanach bochd, but I'll probably splash out when the itch needs to be scratched.

Tapadh leibh a-rithist

'S e do bheatha! The atlas contains the phonetic transcriptions of the 200 or so collection points up and down Scotland from Sutherland to Perthshire and Kintyre to St Kilda of the items they collected. Borgstrom etc is not part of that. It has almost nothing in terms of grammar/idiom or even connected speech but it WILL give you some insight into the phonetic features of Uist. For anything on connected speech, you'll need the other book - good to know it's still being sold though.

akerbeltz wrote:The atlas contains the phonetic transcriptions of the 200 or so collection points up and down Scotland from Sutherland to Perthshire and Kintyre to St Kilda of the items they collected.

Glè mhath, tha mi cinnteach gum bi e fìor inntinneach ma-thà.

Tha 'n seinneadair Julie Fowlis às Uibhist a Tuath, mar sin sna h-òrain aice agus ann an roinnt bhidiothan a tha air Youtube cluinnidh thu i a' bruidhinn neo a' seinn sa Ghàidhlig

Bha mi ag èisteachd rithe an-diugh, tha an guth aice gu hàlainn gun teagamh!

If NORTH Uist is also of interest, go to Guthan nan Eilean. Masses of contemporary recordings in the community
by Gordon Wells

http://guthan.wordpress.com/

Lots of it on YouTube too.

Don't know if you've tried Tobar an Dualchais for South Uist yet (as mentioned a few posts ago) but if you go through the search results patiently there's some good stuff there.

Thanks for the plug, Faoileag. Plenty of North AND South Uist recordings there, amongst others...

akerbeltz wrote:Còig leabhraichean mòra tomadach air €20 's tu a' gearain air €50?

Uill, chan eil fhios agam ma tha feum agam orra idir...
(There probably is, in the medium-to-long term, but I think my folk's'd have a heart attack if a bundle that hefty appeared at the door with my name on it... they're already storing enough of my sgudal.)